Statistics - Ireland

Updated 09/2012

Legal requirements

The Statistics Act, 1993 provides the legal basis for all statistical inquiries, both statutory (i.e. obligatory) and voluntary, undertaken by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). Your business may be required to participate in statutory surveys undertaken by the CSO or asked to volunteer information for non-statutory surveys.

All information supplied to the CSO is treated as strictly confidential.

Statistical bodies

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) is Ireland's specialist national statistical agency responsible for collecting, compiling and disseminating statistics relating to the economic, social and general activities in the State.

Central Statistics Office

The VAT Information Exchange System (VIES) was set up to prevent abuse of zero-rating provisions for goods traded in the EU. It introduced the requirement for each member country to record specific information about traders and their trade.

Intrastat was set up to guarantee that statistics of internal EU trade could be gathered in such a way as to maintain the accuracy of the statistics.

VIES and Intrastat

Types of statistics

The CSO conducts monthly, quarterly and annual surveys in all sectors of the economy. Business surveys are mostly conducted on a sample basis to minimise the statistical reporting burden on the business sector.

New businesses and a certain proportion of existing businesses may be contacted to verify that basic data, such as contact details, number of persons engaged in the business is up-to-date and to ensure that CSO survey samples are representative.

If you are contacted by the CSO, it will be indicated if participation in the survey is mandatory or voluntary and what the deadlines are etc.

BASIS - Information on Statistical Returns

Administrative procedures

Submitting statistics

Traders must submit declarations to either of two EU systems:

the VAT Information Exchange System (VIES) office, or
Intrastat.

Traders who export goodsmust submit a VIES statement either monthly, quarterly, (or annually in limited cases), and also complete a monthly Intrastat return if the total value of goods dispatched exceeds €635,000 annually.

Traders who import goodsmust fill out a monthly Intrastat return if the total value of goods received exceeds €191,000 annually. These returns must be submitted in addition to the standard VAT returns (VAT3).

The VIES and Intrastat returns can be submitted either on paper or electronically.

The supply of services - was - brought into the VIES regime with effect from January 1 2010. Irish VAT registered suppliers must now submit a VIES statement detailing all the VAT registered customers in other Member States to whom he/she has supplied services in respect of which that customer is liable for payment of the VAT due.. There are also new conditions requiring traders who supply goods (above a certain threshold) to complete monthly VIES returns.

Changes to the VIES system concerning services and monthly reporting

Resources

Business Access to State Information and Services (BASIS) provides government information and services to businesses online. The information is structured around the lifecycle of a business, such as starting up and employing staff.

Check also the legislation on this topic in:

Statistics - Ireland